This invention relates to safety apparatus for a bacon press or the like.
As disclosed in the inventor's prior coassigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,850,966, 3,146,697 and 3,901,140, bacon presses are well known which have an expansible and contractible bacon compressing and molding chamber defined by six platens movable relative to one another. A side or slab of bacon may be compressed and molded in the press heightwise, laterally and endwise to assume a more uniform thickness and regular shape so that it may be readily sliced to yield a greater number of slices of uniform size and weight with less waste than with unpressed bacon slabs.
In the operation of manually loaded and operated presses, such as shown in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,140, the operator places a slab of bacon in the open platens of the press and manually operates a pair of valves or switches (one with one hand, the other with the other hand) to operate the press. Typically, these valves are so-called "dead man" valves, which must be manually held open for operation of the press. If one or both of these valves is released at any time during operation of the press, the press will instantaneously stop. Once in operation, the press cycles relatively rapidly completing a pressing cycle in a few seconds and the platens close with great force. In most instances, the requirement for holding both valves open for operation of the press keeps both hands of the operator out of the press during its operation to avoid injury to the operator, but press operators have been known to hang a weight on one of the dead man valves so as continuously to hold it open and to enable them to operate the press with one hand instead of two, with attendant danger. Also, if the dual dead man valves are properly used, the operator was not free to do other tasks, such as preparing to insert the next bacon slab, while the press was in operation.